PhD students will choose a main topic for their research, which is to be carried out under the guidance of a scientific advisor. This topic leads to the Doctoral thesis, whose results will normally be presented at international congresses and in journal papers. The research activity produces also the Doctoral Thesis, finalized in the whole third year.

At the beginning of their studies, the PhD student will be offered counseling by a tutor, who will support them during their activity, helping to solve possible problems.

DEIB's scientific activities in the field of Information Technologies are distributed along many areas and organized in four sections:

Research and study activity is mainly individual, but students are strongly encouraged to participate in the DEIB's research groups. Projects are often supported by external funding by companies or research programs by the European Community, or other research agencies. Many projects are carried out jointly with other European institutions or companies.

All PhD students are granted the necessary resources (PC, connection to the internet, scientific computing and library services, etc.) to carry out their activity and access to scientific papers and specialized documentation from local and international data bases.

Furthermore, there are a large number of scientific laboratories at DEIB. http://www.deib.polimi.it/eng/laboratories. These laboratories are managed by research groups inside DEIB, or by the consortium structures (in particular, CEFRIEL http://www.cefriel.com/) and to the National Research Council (CNR) and are available to the PhD students. Joint scientific research collaborations, both national and international, with academic and industrial institutes and laboratories are very intense.

PhD students may take part in schools and congresses and visit other research centers both in Italy and abroad, even for an extended period of time (up to 18th months).